Reading Roundup for February 2024

 

Here we are at the end of another month, and it is time to tell you about all the books I have read in February.

My reading time is still being impacted by my new puppy shaped friend who will, in time, be a wonderful reading and writing companion. However, at the moment, it is a case of preventing her from getting into too much mischief!

Have you read anything good this month? I would love to hear your recommendations. 

Books I Have Read

Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering - Edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston - This is a really unusual collaborative work which made for an interesting read. You can read my review by clicking here.

Our Georgeous Baby by Smriti Halls - This is a delightful picture book about the arrival of a new baby. You can read my review by clicking here.

The Sisterhood by Katherine Bradley - A feminist retelling of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. You can read my review by clicking here.

L is for Love by Atinuke - I reviewed this book for pre-schoolers on Valentine's Day as it seemed so apt. You can read my review by clicking here.

Next of Kin by Hannah Bonham-Young - This is a lovely book filled with humour and chemistry between the main characters. You can read my review by clicking here.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - I read this with my Book Group and it had a mixed reception. However, I really enjoyed it and you can read my review by clicking here.

My Brilliant Life: An Unforgettable Memoir of Love, Loss and the Ability of the Heart to Heal by Rachelle Unreich - This is a very moving memoir, told by a daughter about her mother's experience during the Holocaust. You can read my review by clicking here.

Adiel and the Fuhrer by Elyse Hoffman - I read this as part of the blog tour and very glad I did. You can read my review by clicking here.

Snack, Please! by Georgie Birkett - My review of this lovely picture book will be up next week.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman - This particular book was a little over sentimental for my taste but it was a good story.

The Story Collector by Iris Costello - This was a five star timeslip novel and was excellent. You can read my full review by clicking here.

Books I Did Not Finish

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook - Absolutely nothing wrong with this book but I needed to prioritise other books so have set it aside for the moment.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Reading this I learnt that puppies and Russian literature are not a good combination!

Books I am Currently Reading

The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift

In Sickness and in Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym by Nora Gold

The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh

Newborn by Kerry Hudson

Books I Want to Read in March 2023

 

I know that we are not there yet but as soon as I turn my calender to the month of March I feel as though spring is just around the corner. Saint David's Day (today) and Mother's Day are just two of the events to look forward to in March.

Optimistically, it will soon be pleasant enough to sit in the early spring sunshine with a book. Here are the books which I am hoping to dive into this month.

The Book of Eve by Meg Clothier

Nanny Bodyguard by Lisa Childs

The Minister and the Murderer by Stuart Kelly

The Killings at Kingfisher Hall by Sophie Hannah

Hope is a Woman's Name by Amal Elsana Alh'jooj

Bear Town by Fredrik Backman

Last of the Summer Moet by Wendy Holden

The Shadow in the Glass by J.J.A. Harwood

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin

Reading Roundup for February 2023

 

I find it impossible to think about February without pancakes popping into my mind. Actually, I did not partake this year. My healthy eating plan is going well, and whilst I know that there are healthy versions to be made, if I can't smother them in lemon and sugar I would rather give it a miss.

Instead of food, I have focussed on reading this month, and here is my list of books which I read this month.

Books I Have Read

The Story of Us by Dani Atkins - I enjoyed this book very much and you can read my review by clicking here.

A Mother's Hope for the Cornish Girls by Betty Walker - This was a lovely WWII book which I really enjoyed. You can read my review by clicking here.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman - This is the second time that I have read this book. I think I enjoyed it even more this time. It is a fantastic book and you can read my review (from my initital read) by clicking here.

Birdwatcher by William Shaw - I read this book with my book group this month. Everybody enjoyed it and overall we scored it seven and a half out of ten.

The Rescue by A. L . Rosewarne - I read this as part of a blog tour and it was a delightful read, narrated by a dog called Moll. You can find my review by clicking here.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell - This was a good read set in the jazz world of America. You can read my full review by clicking here.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams - This was a very funny book revolving around finding fairy tale romance in the technological age. You can read my review by clicking here.

The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain - A wonderful crime mystery. I literally finished reading it about half an hour ago and my review will be up as soon as I have written it. (You can now access my review by clicking here.)

Books I am Partway Through

Maid of Steel by Kate Baker

Where We Belong by Sarah Bennett

Lyrics for the Loved Ones by Anne Goodwin

Top Ten New Releases in February 2023

Each month I get really excited about the books which are being published the following month. This month it has been particularly difficult to choose just ten as there are some amazing titles due to be released. However, here are my top ten.

Anne Boleyn: An Illustrated Life of Henry VIII's Queen by Roland Hui

'If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours,' - Henry Rex, forever

Written by King Henry VIII to his sweetheart, the seductive and vivacious Anne Boleyn, his passion for her would be so great that Henry would make Anne his queen, and change the course of English history.

But the woman whom Henry had promised to love for all time would go from palace to prison, charged with heinous crimes. Her life ended on a bloody scaffold in the Tower of London.

Explore the incredible story of Anne Boleyn, the most famous and controversial of Henry VIII's six wives, in this exciting new account of her life told in words and pictures.

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and of a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.

When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she's soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners' lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies - but soon enough, someone's asking questions. It's not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.

Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman unwittingly entangled in a web of deceit.

This Could Be Everything by Eva Rice

It’s 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a 15-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of the Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster for a new movie called Pretty Woman. 

 

February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher.   

 

THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished. It’s about what happens when you start looking after something more important than you, and the hope a yellow bird can bring… 

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald by Neil Buttery

The great Elizabeth Raffald used to be a household name, and her list of accomplishments would make even the highest of achievers feel suddenly impotent. After becoming housekeeper at Arley Hall in Cheshire at age twenty-five, she married and moved to Manchester, transforming the Manchester food scene and business community, writing the first A to Z directory and creating the first domestic servants registry office, the first temping agency if you will. Not only that, she set up a cookery school and ran a high class tavern attracting both gentry and nobility. She reputedly gave birth to sixteen daughters, wrote book on midwifery and was an effective exorciser of evil spirits. These achievements gave her notoriety and standing in Manchester, but it all pales in comparison to her biggest achievement; her cookery book The Experienced English Housekeeper. Published in 1769, it ran to over twenty editions and brought her fame and fortune. But then disaster; her fortune lost, spent by her alcoholic husband. Bankrupted twice, she spent her final years in a pokey coffeehouse in a seedy part of town. Her book, however, lived on. Influential and often imitated (but never bettered), it became the must-have volume for any kitchen, and it helped form our notion of traditional British food as we think of it today. To tell Elizabeth's tumultuous rise and fall story, historian Neil Buttery doesn't just delve into the history of food in the eighteenth century, he has to look at trade and empire, domestic service, the agricultural revolution, women's rights, publishing and copyright law, gentlemen's clubs and societies, the horse races, the defeminization of midwifery, and the paranormal, to name but a few. Elizabeth Raffald should be revered, not unknown. How can this be? Perhaps we should ask Mrs Beeton...

What Remains of Elsie Jane by Chelsea Wakelyn

Sam is dead, which means that Elsie Jane has just lost the brilliant, sensitive man she planned to grow old with. The early days of grief are a fog of work and single parenting. Too restless to sleep, Elsie pores over Sam's old love letters, paces her house, and bickers with the ghosts of Sam and her dead parents night after night. As the year unfolds, she develops an obsession with a local murder mystery, attends a series of disastrous internet dates in search of a "replacement soulmate," and solicits a space-time wizard via Craigslist, convinced he will help her forge a path through the cosmos back to Sam.

Examining the ceaseless labour of motherhood, the stigma of death by drug poisoning, and the allure of magical thinking in the wake of tragedy, What Remains of Elsie Jane is a heart-splitting reminder that grief is born from the depths of love.

A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis

Haworth 1847 - Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.

At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent - or guilty - without a shadow of doubt.

Clara and Olivia by Lucy Ashe

I would kill to dance like her.

Disciplined and dedicated, Olivia is the perfect ballerina. But no matter how hard she works, she can never match identical twin Clara's charm. 

I would kill to be with her.

As rehearsals intensify for the ballet Coppélia, the girls feel increasingly like they are being watched. And, as infatuation turns to obsession, everything begins to unravel.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams

One damsel + one wolf + many, many, many frogs = DISTRESS

Gloriously fun, romantic and feel-good, discover a 21st century London fairytale with an unforgettable twist . . .

Bella Marble is a true, hopeless, despairing romantic. Above all things, even above her wish to be a writer, she wants love.

But when her beautiful best friend moves out of their flat share to live with the most boring ogre in history, and her perfectly paired parents tell her their own love story is coming to an end, Bella's illusions of a happily ever after start to shatter. If they can't find 'the one', what chance does she have?

Disenchanted, Bella throws herself into looking for love in all the wrong places. London may be fresh out of knights in shining Armani, but it's got a surplus of frogs - and as Bella learns, kissing frogs can be extremely fun.

But Bella is forgetting the essential rule of all fairytales.

There is nothing more powerful than a first kiss . . .

Red Dirt Road by S. R. White

One outback town. Two puzzling murders. Fifty suspects.

In Unamurra, a drought-scarred, one-pub town deep in the outback, two men are savagely murdered a month apart - their bodies elaborately arranged like angels.

With no witnesses, no obvious motives and no apparent connections between the killings, how can lone police officer Detective Dana Russo - flown in from hundreds of kilometres away - possibly solve such a baffling, brutal case?

Met with silence and suspicion from locals who live by their own set of rules, Dana must take over a stalled investigation with only a week to make progress.

But with a murderer hiding in plain sight, and the parched days rapidly passing, Dana is determined to uncover the shocking secrets of this forgotten town - a place where anyone could be a killer.

A gripping and vividly atmospheric story from the international bestseller, this is a searing story perfect for fans of Jane Harper, Chris Hammer and Garry Disher.

The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy

Blood and power bind three generations of women in the Ozark Mountains. So does an evil that’s followed them across the decades.

1931. Gracelynn Doherty lives peacefully on Tin Mountain, helping her adoptive granny work her cures. Despite whispers that the women are witches, the superstitious locals still seek them out, whether to remedy arthritis or a broken heart. But when evangelist Josiah Bellflower comes to town promising miracle healing, full bellies, and prosperity, his revivals soon hold Tin Mountain in thrall―and Granny in abject fear.

Granny recognizes Josiah. Fifty years ago, in a dark and desperate moment, she made a terrible promise. Now Josiah, an enemy, has returned to collect his due.

As Granny sickens and the drought-ridden countryside falls under a curse, Gracelynn must choose: flee Tin Mountain and the only family she knows, or confront the vengeful preacher whose unholy mission is to destroy her.

Reading Roundup for October 2022

 

Autumn is well and truly here in the UK. As I write, the leaves are swirling through the air with the grace of a ballerina. It is pretty to watch from the warmth and cosiness of my office.

I was excited to complete my Good Reads annual challenge this week. I have read 94 books this year and I still have time to fit in a few more before the end of the year. Are you taking part in the Good Reads challenge? I would love to hear how you are getting along.

I have read some great books this month and with no further ado here they are.

Books I Have Read

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - This was my book group choice for this month. It met with varied opinions but I loved it and it was my favourite book this month. You can read my review by clicking here.

The Maids of Biddenden by G. D. Harper - I have read this as part of an upcoming blog tour which will take place in a couple of weeks so keep your eyes open for my review.

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz - The second in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series. Very enjoyable and I have already obtained a copy of the next in the series.

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths - The latest in the Ruth Galloway series. I adore this series and I am eagerly anticipating the next one to be published.

A Midlife Baby by Cary J. Hansson - The second part of a trilogy and my review will be up very soon.

Stolen Summers by Anne Goodwin - This missed being my favourite book of the month by a whisker and you can read my review by clicking here. It is a prequel to the author's previous book, Matilda Windsor is Coming Home. It is a beautiful book and if you would like to read my review of it then please click here.

The Unexpected Return of Josephine Cox by Claire Graddige - The first in a very enjoyable series and I am planning on reading the second one soon.

Mr. Peacock's Possession's by Lydia Syson - I enjoyed this very much. My review will be up soon.

The Reaper's Quota by Sarah McKnight - I liked this amusing take on the Grim Reaper. Worth reading.

Books I Did Not Finish

Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B. Yehoshua - I read about a third of this book and was enjoying it but I had other books which had reading deadlines so had to prioritise those. When I went back to this book I realised I needed to start from the beginning again which I will do at some point.

Books I am Partway Through

Oil and Dust by Jamie Fairleigh

People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn

(header photo courtesy of Urak Demir/Unsplash)